For example, in a tilt and/or telescopic type steering column apparatus for a vehicle, a steering column is so constructed as to be tiltable and/or telescopically slidable, and, when fastened in a tilt and/or telescopic adjustment position, a column sided bracket (distance bracket) attached to the steering column is held in a way that press-fits this bracket to a car body sided bracket (tilt bracket) attached to a car body by use of a clamp mechanism.
A balance spring for sustaining a steering column so as to raise the steering column in order to prevent the steering column from carelessly coming off when performing a tilt and/or telescopic adjustment. This balance spring includes, for instance, a pair of biasing end portions giving a bias in such directions that they expand each other. One biasing end portion is attached to the car body or the car body sided bracket, and the other biasing end portion sustains the steering column or the column sided bracket.
Further, recently there have increased demands for RVs (Recreational Vehicles), and the utilization of the vehicles has been diversified. For instance, family members have meals in a car room, the vehicle is employed as a substitute for a tent in camp, and so forth. A request on such occasions is that the steering column is retreated by leaping up the steering column at a large angle, a driver's seat is directed backward by turning, and a comparatively large effective utility space is formed over the driver's seat.
A leap-up spring is provided for leaping up the steering column and has the same construction as the balance spring has. The leap-up spring includes, for example, a pair of biasing end portions giving a bias in such directions that they expand each other, wherein one biasing end portion is attached to the car body or the car body sided bracket, and the other biasing end portion sustains the steering column or the column sided bracket.
Incidentally, in the balance or leap-up spring, as described above, the other biasing end portion abuts on the steering column or the column sided bracket.
When making the telescopic adjustment, the other biasing end portion slides on the abutting portion of the steering column or the column sided bracket, and therefore some sort of a spacer member is provided on the abutting portion in terms of improving the slidability as well as of muting noises caused by the slide.
The spacer member is, e.g., a plate-like spacer member. In this case, however, it is laborious to fit the plate-like spacer member.
Further, there is a case where the other biasing end portion of the balance or leap-up spring abuts on a fastening bolt for fixation in a tilt or telescopic position. In this case, the fastening bolt is covered with a tube on which the other biasing end portion abuts in terms of improving the slidability as well as of muting noises caused by the telescopic slide.
In this case, an operation of assembling in the fastening bolt must involve intruding the fasting bolt into the tube, thus requiring an unnecessary and laborious operation on the occasion of the assembly.
Moreover, as disclosed in UK Patent GB2113629A or DE4016163A1, the other biasing end portion of the balance or leap-up spring is brought into contact with the fastening bolt for the fixation in the tilt or telescopic position in terms of muting the noises caused when the telescopic slide is performed, and a pulley-like roller member with which the other biasing end portion is brought into contact, is rotatably fitted to the fastening bolt in order to improve the slidability.
In this case, however, a couple of pulley-like roller members are needed, and the number of roller members becomes large. Further, the roller members are constructed rotatably, and hence a working accuracy gets important, and an operation of guiding and fitting the other biasing end portion into a groove of the pulley-like roller member is laborious.